January 22, 2006 ... Preparing to Ship the Pathfinder with Matson -- Visiting Berkeley & San Francisco.
U-Turns are the Car's Eraser ... Errors can be Interesting!!
So we had several must do tasks today ... Go pick up the car; find out where Matson Navigation, the shipper for the Pathfinder,
was located; get a brief car tour of San Fancisco; and end up at Fisherman's Warf for dinner. Of course, there was the ever
nagging desire in the back of my mind to update the LTB(LoudThinkingBlog) before we forget the details of the trip and the
miracles that happened! But we only had one day to do this, so off to do the task list. Well, KatieRose and I have been in
many cities but the signage and whatever else is going on in this area, made the trip eventful, scary and funny if I tell it correctly!!
We made it to the Oakland airport area easily enough, but finding Budget turned out to be a series of U-Turns and tours of the
airport side roads ... several times!! Eventually we did find the very much improved car rental terminal where all of the
car rentals share parking lots, buses and total resources. Once you figure out the signage it was fairly easy to find Budget.
When I went to get the car, I was happy and shocked to find that we were given a new Impala 4 Door full sized car with a huge
trunk, which we needed. KatieRose estimated that the license plate '5POS174' meant 5 out of a possible 174, since they didn't
make that many of these this year!
Now it was off to Matson. Somehow I messed up with the signage again going to Richmond, where Matson was. We found
ourselves on the Oakland Bay Bridge going into San Francisco, which was exactly not the place that we wanted to be at that
time! ... AFTER Matson, NOT before!! Plus there was at least a half-hour traffic jam! So I saw this side road that I
hopefully thought was the last exit before going over the bridge ... even though the sign very clearly said "Buses
Only"!! Now you have to picture, that KatieRose is following behind me in the Pathfinder! Sure we were in communication by
cellphone. She is so sweet ... she'll follow me anywhere ... even to jail! When I got down this ramp I saw the sign that
said it was a $271 fine for unlawfully taking this route! OOPS!! At this point we had no choice but to proceed and see
what happens. Well as it turns out you get to go around the toll booths, not having to pay, on this road!! So we went
across the bridge and found ourselves in downtown San Francisco ... without paying or getting caught!! Now this was
another Miracle ... indeed!! Are we blessed or what! So we found, and not that easily, our way back across the bridge. I
was blown away by how blessed we were and just had this nervous and amazed laugh in unbelief over the cell to KatieRose
who was in a tough place ... to get lost or follow this crazy Cuban in the car in front of her. These pictures were taken
when we were making the second trip ... which was legal! It was amazing to realize what we had done. We may be crazy but
its too hard to take pictures when you're breaking the law!!
After this harrowing experience we did find our way to Richmond fairly easily, although we did have to make a U-Turn
once because I over shot the street. Anyway we got there and had a wonderful chat with the guard who turned out to be
another well placed miracle. He said that we could leave the car there and he would watch over it and would tell the next
guard to do the same. That was a fantastic savings because we wouldn't have to drive two cars around back to Concord or
find a suitable parking place for one of them while we toured SAn Francisco nor fight the traffic on Monday morning
running the risk of getting lost again. When my co-pilot is in the same vehicle, I might get lost but NOTHING that drastic
as the 'Buses Only' lane over a bridge!! You can see KatieRose was still pulling her hair just thinking of what we just went through.
This picture of me and the Pathfinder clearly shows a setting for another Miracle!
Well with this behind us, it was now time to visit San Francisco and on to a very much needed meal at the Warf!
However, on the way, I saw the Berkeley Campus turn-off!! I somehow was under the misconception that this campus was in SF
... NOT SO!! It was too compelling to miss ... We were amazed how many East Indian and Pakistani resturants there were.
Made us wonder about the student population!?! Glad that we included this. The chances of coming back this way again was
very remote. The actions and history of this institution is legendary.
Then we were off to the Oakland Bay Bride ... this time, doing it legally! The crowd of cars was just as bad as it was
before. We were very surprised of how many cars were going into San Francisco on a Sunday afternoon. Made us wonder what
it would be like on a workday. The wait was 25 minutes and the toll was $3-. This time we took pictures of the signs of
our last trip and we laughed and marveled about our first time across the bridge. Now that was another miracle! We were
amazed how I could have made such an error even under the desperation of not crossing the bridge!
Having been to SF several times before, I took the central city route to the Warf while KatieRose took video of the
buildings. I went up and down Market street and did the best I could to give her a feeling of SF. She did say that if I
keep this up I'll probably find 'Monk'!! We both love that show but didn't even try to find the places which are on the
show. There is so much to see in SF ... by this time it was around 3:30PM and we hadn't eaten anything since our very
minimal breakfast about 8AM. It was time to head to the Warf!!
The were a lot of people there, which kind of made sense when you think of the bridge traffic! The street traffic was
just as bad and of course there wasn't any spots to park. I made the circle so KatieRose could get a feel of the place,
while I looked for parking. I saw this parking lot where we first entered and circled back to that. If we ate at one of
the particpating resturants our parking would be free, otherwise it was $2-/30min. As it turned out I wanted to eat at one
of them anyway.
There weren't many street entertainers but they had the key corners and spots to attract the passersby. We
watched here and there on our way to Castagnola's. I've eaten there before on business trips and knew the food to very
good. Plus the spot had a view of the water and boats. The meal was great as was the view.
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San Francisco